A soldier, courtier and poet, Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) became a favorite of Queen Elizabeth's and was knighted in 1585, but then was briefly imprisoned for having secretly married Elizabeth Throckmorton, one of the queen's Maids in Waiting. After James I ascended the throne, Raleigh was imprisoned for a plot against the king's life and spent thirteen years in the Tower of London. After being released he led a disastrous search for El Dorado in Guiana and in 1618, upon his return to England in disgrace, was beheaded. One of the great Elizabethan poets, Raleigh wrote this poem as a witty rejoinder to his friend Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," which was published in the San Diego Reader last week.